SOIL CULTURE AND SOUL CULTURE. 47 



lasts, from the mad, noisy, exciting strifes of the town. Living 

 apart from all this clatter and confusion, having to do, not with 

 men who are always in a hurry, but with Nature who is never 

 in a hurry, there is a chance for the farmer to cultivate steadi- 

 ness and repose of character, graces that adorn whoever wears 

 them. 



Not only this, but the farmer has leisure and opportunities for 

 intellectual cultivation, if he is only minded to improve them, 

 which are denied to many other workers. It is true that the 

 thrifty farmer is apt to find an odd job for the rainy day ; a sled 

 to mend, or a gate to build, or a fodder rack to fix for the win- 

 ter ; but there are many rainy days and some pleasant ones, es- 

 pecially in these latter days of horse rakes and mowing ma- 

 chines, when not much is done ; and when the farmer, if he 

 were studiously inclined, could lay in large stores of useful 

 knowledge. Then there are the long winter evenings, after the 

 cattle are housed, and the chores are all done, which ought to 

 be sacred to reading and study. Unlike the merchant or the 

 professional man in the village, who must be in the stoi'e or the 

 office until nine o'clock ; unlike the^ mechanic or the operative 

 who has been in-doors all day and really needs a little walk after 

 supper to the grocery or the post-office, — and who is apt to sit 

 down in some lounging place and spend all his evening — the 

 farmer has no duty to occupy his evening, and no temptation to 

 draw him away from home ; and here are two or three golden 

 hours of every winter's day that may be turned to excellent 

 account. 



But some one is asking. What advantage is there, after all, in 

 this reading and study ? It will not make my crops grow any 

 better or my cows give any more milk. What is the use of it 

 all ? To this I answer, in the first place, that it will be likely to 

 be of advantage to you as farmers. Even if you read nothing 

 about agriculture, your increased knowledge will broaden and 

 strengthen your mind, and improve your judgment. Farming 

 calls for mind as well as muscle, and if reading and intellectual 

 pursuits bring strength and enlargement to the mind, then of 

 course they help to make a man a better farmer. 



But that, after all, is not what we are talking about. Even if 

 it could be proved that the cultivation of the mind would not 

 enable you to be any more successful in your calling, it would 



